On 11th Anniversary of Iraq War, IAVA Readies to Storm the Hill to Combat Veteran Suicide

22 Vets Die By Suicide a Day; IAVA Descends on Washington for Action

WASHINGTON, DC (March 19, 2014) – On the 11th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) announced it will converge on Washington March 22-28 to introduce IAVA’s 2014 Policy Agenda and demand action on its top issue: combating veteran suicide. As part of IAVA’s 10th annual Storm the Hill campaign, post-9/11 veterans will descend on Washington to share their personal stories and call on Congress and the President to address mental health and take action to significantly reduce the number of suicides among veterans and servicemembers.

The 31 veteran leaders participating in Storm the Hill come from 16 states and represent IAVA’s diverse, dynamic and rapidly growing national membership. All have been affected in some way by suicide, including knowing family and friends who have faced mental health challenges. Throughout the week, they will meet with members of Congress, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Defense and the White House, urging policymakers to adopt priorities and recommendations to bridge the gaps in care and ultimately break through the negative stigma that is too often associated with seeking help.

The VA estimates that 22 veterans die by suicide each day. In IAVA’s 2014 Member Policy Survey, over 47 percent of our respondents said they knew a veteran who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan who had attempted suicide.

“IAVA is descending on Washington to make combating suicide a priority for all Americans. Our members have told us loud and clear that this is the number one issue for them and their families. Now, these members are leaving behind their families, jobs and studies to focus for one week on changing Washington. We are losing too many of our brothers and sisters nationwide. And we’re storming the hill to change history and transform a landscape so that America will truly take care of its own who have shouldered the burdens of war,” said IAVA Founder and CEO Paul Rieckhoff.

“Eleven years after the War in Iraq began, veterans too often feel forgotten by Washington. The known rate of suicide among troops and veterans is deplorable. We have reached a point where we need to send up a flare and demand new actions from our elected officials. Over a week of events and action we will call on Washington step up and deliver. It’s long past time for America to show our community that they really have got our backs,” Rieckhoff added.

One of the 2014 IAVA Stormers is Kristofer Goldsmith, an Army veteran from Long Island, NY. Goldsmith served four years active-duty in the Army and deployed to Iraq in 2005, where he went on more than 300 missions. Kris left the Army in 2007 with a general discharge after he attempted to take his own life. This type of discharge status made him ineligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill, and he was unemployable for two years. Kris is now in the process of recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder and attends Nassau Community College under the Voc Rehab program. He currently serves as president of Student Veterans of Naussau Community College. He is coming to Washington to advocate for all those who have served.

Storm the Hill is IAVA’s premiere advocacy week and the start of an aggressive, annual push to enact the top priority of IAVA members nationwide. Started in 2005, Storm the Hill puts IAVA’s top issue for the year on the map and has jumpstarted historic changes, including the passage of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, advanced funding for health care at the VA, the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, and last year, a national focus on the high VA disability claims backlog.

On Monday, IAVA will unveil its 2014 Policy Agenda, a blueprint for combating suicide and addressing other key issues, which is driven by data from member veterans nationwide, partner organizations, and a decade of experience.

This year, IAVA is also calling on Congress to keep the VA on track for Backlog Zero by 2015, protect the Post-9/11 GI Bill, address unemployment and continue fighting against military sexual assault.

In addition to advocating for strong mental health policies, IAVA connects veterans to mental health services, including partnering with the Veterans Crisis Line to ensure that every servicemember, veteran, family member and provider knows that there is free and confidential help available 24 hours a day through phone, text and online. Veterans, or those concerned about veterans, can call 800-273-8255 and press 1 to be directly connected to qualified responders.

Visit StormTheHill.org to learn more about IAVA’s efforts to combat suicide, Storm the Hill and our 2014 class of Stormers. All week, IAVA will be posting photos, videos and personal stories on social media and with the #StormtheHill hashtag on Twitter.

IAVA veterans will participate in the following public events during Storm the Hill (please RSVP to Press@iava.org to attend):

Policy Agenda Launch and Mental Health Panel

Who: Paul Rieckhoff, Founder and CEO of IAVA

Terri Tanielian, Senior Social Research Analyst at the RAND Corporation

Loree Sutton, Brigadier General (Ret.) in the U.S. Army and Co-Director of Threshold GlobalWorks, LLC

Caitlin Thompson, VA Deputy Director of Suicide Prevention

When: Monday, March 24 at noon

Where: Capitol Hill, SVC 209

Day of Action to Combat Veteran Suicide

Who: Veterans and supporters placing American flags on the National Mall to represent each of the 1,892 veterans and servicemembers who have died by suicide this year and share the stories of friends and families lost.

When: Thursday, March 27 at 11 a.m.

Where: National Mall, 12th Street between Jefferson and Madison Streets

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (www.IAVA.org) is the nation’s first and largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization representing veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and has more than 270,000 Member Veterans and civilian supporters nationwide. Celebrating its tenth year, IAVA recently received the highest rating – four-stars – from Charity Navigator, America’s largest charity evaluator.

Veteran’s Benefit Group practice attorney, David E. Boelzner, served as a panelist for the first Veteran’s Law Symposium, “Serving Those Who Serviced,” at the University of Richmond School of Law on November 8, 2013. He will also contribute an article to an issue of the Law School’s Journal of Law and the Public Interest dedicated to veteran’s issues, to be issued in the spring.

The Symposium, co-sponsored by the Journal and the Veteran’s and Military Law Association of the Law School, began with a keynote address by Virginia’s junior senator, Tim Kaine, who serves on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees and thus has significant involvement in veteran’s affairs. Senator Kaine spoke on three veteran-related issues that are currently challenging Congress: the VA claims adjudicatory backlog, the problem of sexual assaults in the military and the tendency of presidents to circumvent Congress in carrying out war powers. He also spoke about some legislation he has introduced to address problems of veterans returning to a tough job market.

The first of two substantive sessions focused on the VA claims system and was moderated by David Boelzner, who began by explaining the claims and appeals processes and describing some of the problems. American Legion representative Michael Higgins addressed VA’s Fully Developed Claims initiative, noting that it did help speed claims along, essentially because the claimants were doing VA’s work for it. John Paul Cimino described law school clinical programs and other student activities to assist veterans.

The second session was moderated by Robert Barrett of the Virginia Bar Association’s Veterans Issues Task Force, with assistance from Heather Hays Lockerman, and focused on various avenues to assist veterans outside the claims system, including specialized courts impaneled to address veteran issues outside the ordinary litigation system and through cooperation among judges and social assistance organizations.

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October 25, 2013 — The American Legion’s Department of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands invited attorneys Nancy Foti and Krystle Waldron of the Goodman Allen Donnelly Veterans Benefits Practice Group to attend a conference and speak to Post Commanders and Officers about the needs of veterans in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and the legal assistance that Goodman Allen Donnelly can provide in obtaining the benefits they are entitled to.

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The American Legion’s Department of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands invited attorneys Nancy Foti and Krystle Waldron of the Goodman Allen Donnelly Veterans Benefits Practice Group to attend a conference and speak to Post Commanders and Officers about the needs of veterans in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and the legal assistance that Goodman Allen Donnelly can provide in obtaining the benefits they are entitled to.

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The attorneys of the Goodman Allen Donnelly Veterans Benefits Practice Group attended the annual judicial conference of the Veterans Court held March 4-5, 2010 in Washington, D.C. The conference draws attorneys from around the country who represent veterans, the VA, and those who work for the court itself, as well as the judges and other court staff, all for the purpose of sharing ideas about how the law is developing and ways to make the court work better. There were over 300 attendees and the keynote address was given by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

In introducing a presentation concerning medical opinions in veterans cases, Judge Davis of the court quoted from a recent article on the subject by Goodman Allen Donnelly’s David Boelzner. You can link to the article through our blog.

On the final day of the conference, the Secretary for Veterans Affairs, General Eric K. Shinseki, gave an address highlighting the enormity of the work facing the agency and added comments on the progress of several of his new initiatives. Gen. Shinseki candidly acknowledged the many challenges the agency faces and expressed his personal disappointment in the lack of progress made so far in relieving the claim backlog. He explained that this was largely due to having to divert resources to some programs pushed to the forefront by Congress. He pledged to redouble the effort to reduce the claims backlog, declaring his intention to achieve that goal by 2015.

The National Organization of Veterans’ Advocates (NOVA) fall conference is scheduled to take place on November 5,6 and 7, 2009 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The conference includes a one day seminar for practitioners who are new to the area of veterans’ law on Thursday, November 5 and a two day general seminar for more advanced practitioners beginning Friday November 6 and continuing through Saturday. The seminar is intended to increase the knowledge and expertise of those who represent veterans before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Goodman Allen Donnelly attorneys, Sandy Wischow and Todd Wesche have been invited to be presenters at the conference. Ms. Wischow will discuss the important issues surrounding legal ethics in veterans law and Mr. Wesche will address military discharge issues including the Physical Evaluation Board and concurrent receipt of retirement and disability pay.

The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims Bar Association are jointly sponsoring a Moot Court competition to be held October 14 and 15, 2009, in connection with the Court’s 20th anniversary. Fourteen teams from the following universities will participate:

We are pleased to announce that David J. Lowenstein has joined the firm’s Veterans Benefit Practice Group as an Associate. Mr. Lowenstein concentrates his practice in Veterans Benefits and brings extensive experience in the VA adjudicative process following eight years as an Appellate Attorney in the Office of the VA General Counsel (serving four of those years as a Senior Appellate Attorney) where he represented the Secretary of Veterans Affairs before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in all aspects of disability entitlement. Mr. Lowenstein received his law degree from American University, Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C., and his undergraduate degree from Boston University.